Canada @ 2020 Challenge League A (2nd round)

[ray]

Canada vs Qatar / Singapore vs Denmark

The Danes could do Canada an important favor by winning their match.

Rain looks likely to interrupt today's play.

Canada finish on 275/9 with captain Dhaliwal and Ravinderpal Singh providing the biggest contributions. Should be defend-able but hope the rain stays away.
Qatar 91. In the end, easily handled by the bowlers.

Just Vanuatu left to run the table in this round. Hoping for sunny-ish skies .

And thank you, Denmark! The extra Singapore loss could prove important in case of a rain-out in this or the next round.

[Victorian]

Pathan really is not having a good tournament. Someone else should open. He’s scored 2,1,49,7 so far. Dhaliwal scoring big again today.

[Victorian]

Huge for Canada! Denmark beat Singapore by one run. Now Canada has a two game lead which leaves some margin for error. Surely Canada will beat Vanuatu. At the next round of this comp Canada should bring a couple of u19 players to use in meaningless games because they will probably win the tournament with games yet to play.

[ray]

A few thoughts:
Rommel Shahzad should probably be included for the final match against Vanuatu.

Wondering whether Ammar Khalid is injured. He has only played two matches this round and even then has only bowled a total of eight overs. If not, the Vanuatu match would be a good chance to give him an extended run of overs.

In just over a week the Challenge League B winner will be known - Uganda, Hong Kong and Jersey are still in contention. That team will go to the qualifier playoff to continue the World Cup qualifying journey. They will be one of Canada's opponents if we go on to win League A.

[ray]

Canada vs Vanuatu delayed seemingly for pitch issues. Other match, Denmark vs Malaysia starts an hour late.

More than two hours late, Canada matches start. Poor start with 3 down put into bat by Vanuatu.

[Victorian]

They’re experimenting by moving Movva up the order. As I type that he hits a boundary! Canada has to improve the batting. They are not going to compete at a global qualifier against WI or SA or Namibia.

[ray]

^ There's a whole other tournament (the Qualifier Playoff) in between the Challenge League and facing any Test caliber nations. That Qualifier Playoff will determine what Canada will be doing for the next four years : back to Challenge Leagues or playing with the top Associates.

It might only be Vanuatu but it was an important 5th wicket partnership between Kirton and Nazar to turn the game Canada's way. Nice to see Kirton get his century. Has he finally sorted out his consistency issues? Too early to say but, it he is going in the right direction.

[Victorian]

Aren’t the lowest teams in the Super League in the global qualifier? Ireland, SL, SA, Zim, Ned. Or is their even another tournament to come first?

[ray]

^ I'll refer you to the Wikipedia diagram of the qualification process: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Cr ... ld_Cup.png . There are still two tournaments after the Challenge League separating Canada from World Cup participation. However, your point is well taken. Canada has dominated this round as they had to do, but they still have to raise their game to compete with the top Associates.

Congratulations to the team on going 5-0. It was expected at home but still an accomplishment. They now have a useful 2 game cushion for the final round of their league in December.

[ray]

After 3 years and a pandemic, there were several new faces in the squad for round 2 of the Challenge League A. Nick Kirton scored at a good rate under pressure. Salman Nazar effectively took over Nikhil Dutta's role in the team as a veteran spinner. Jeremy Gordon pace unsettled opposing batsmen. Shreyas Movva showed he could produce runs.

Others were introduced but had mixed success:
Matthew Spoors was apparently quite effective in the field but was unable to break through for a fifty. As he is primarily a batsman, he needs to contribute regularly.
Rayyan Pathan was in the runs once in the tournament. He might deserve another outing but Canada needs to have other options available to open alongside Dhaliwal.
Unfortunately, Ammar Kalid did not get a real opportunity to perform this round.

It was good that Canada generally kept the same lineup and resisted making multiple changes game to game. Now the challenge will be to find the pieces to improve the team as they try to seal League A, but also with an eye to the vital playoff qualifier next March/April.